Method for manufacturing electric masks using a color scanner and an apparatus for use therein

Abstract

A method for manufacturing electric masks characterized by a step of setting a cutout area of the original picture adhered to an input drum by using a color scanner comprising CRT monitor and coordinate input device, a step of roughly scanning the picture in this cutout area at coarser pitch than the scanning pitch in duplicating and recording process, a step of averaging the picture signal obtained by this rough scanning into coarse sampling data, a step of writing this coarse sampling data into the background memory of CRT monitor, a step of displaying thus written coarse sampling data on the CRT monitor as a picture, a step of writing the contour of desired electric mask on the display image by using the coordinate input device while observing this display image and displaying on the control memory, a step of making an electric mask by painting out the contour and writing the electric mask data obtained at this time into the control memory, and a step of reading out the electric mask data written in the control memory at the time of subsequent usual scanning in tune with the generation timing of the image data, and a step of masking the image data in real time; and an apparatus for use therein.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method for manufacturing electric masks using a color scanner having a CRT monitor and a coordinate input device, comprising: setting a cutout area of an original picture adhered to an input drum by means of the coordinate input device prior to a subsequent step of duplicating and recording;   roughly scanning an image in said output area at a pitch that is coarser than a scanning pitch in said subsequent step of duplicating and recording, so as to obtain a picture signal;   averaging the picture signal obtained by said rough scanning into rough sampling data;   writing said rough sampling data into the background memory of the CRT monitor;   displaying the rough sampling data written in the memory of the CRT monitor as a picture on the CRT monitor as an image having a matched origin by means of said coordinate input device;   displaying a contour of a desired electric mask while writing the contour of the desired electric mask into a control memory on said picture by using the coordinate input device, and observing the display picture;   manufacturing an electric mask by solidly painting out the contour;   writing electric mask data obtained from said step of manufacturing into said control memory;   duplicating and recording said image including scanning of said image;   reading out the electric mask data written into the control memory in synchronization with the output timing of picture data so as to mask the picture data in real time; and   interpolating and smoothing the electric mask data written into the control memory by means of a smoothing pattern composed of pattern elements equal in size to picture elements corresponding to the picture data at the time of reading out the mask data in synchronization with the output timing of the picture data.   
     
     
       2. An apparatus for manufacturing an electric mask using a color scanner equipped with a CRT monitor and a coordinate input device, comprising: a scanner controller provided so as to determine a rough scanning condition for a rough pre-scanning of a picture within a cut out area set by said coordinate input device in an original picture adhered to an input drum;   a thinning and averaging circuit for averaging a picture signal obtained by said rough pre-scanning under said rough scanning condition into rough sampling data so as to display said picture signal as a picture on said CRT monitor;   a background memory of a CRT monitor into which said rough sampling data is writeable;   a cursor generating circuit for generating a contour of a desired electric mask on said picture while observing the picture displayed on the CRT monitor with a matched origin by means of a coordinate input device by reading out the rough sampling data from said background memory;   a painting control circuit provided so as to paint out the contour of said electric mask;   a control memory for writing electric mask data obtained when generating the electric mask; and   a smoothing circuit for interpolating and smoothing the electric mask date written in the control memory by means of a lsmoothing pattern composed of pattern elements equal in size to picture elements corresponding to picture data and reading out the mask data in synchronization with the picture data.